Fig 5.

Effects of NE on the expression of VE-cadherin, the junction proteins ZO-1, occludin, and claudin-5, and ICAM-1. (a) Representative blots of effects of 12 h exposure of hRECs to various concentrations (2 nmol/l, 20 nmol/l and 100 nmol/l) of human NE on proteins. (b) VE-cadherin was degraded by human NE in a concentration-dependent manner. The expression of ZO-1 (c), occludin (d), claudin-5 (e) and ICAM-1 (f) did not seem to be affected by human NE. (g, h) Immunoblot from mouse retina showing decreased expression of VE-cadherin in diabetic animals vs non-diabetic control animals. Elane^−/−-D, diabetic Elane-knockout mice; WT-D, diabetic WT mice; WT-N, non-diabetic WT mice Decreased expression of VE-cadherin was partially corrected in diabetic mice lacking NE. *p<0.05, ***p<0.001 vs non-treated control or WT-N, ^†p<0.05 vs WT-D. n=4 replicates for (a–f). n=4 mice for each group in (g) and (h). Data are expressed as mean ± SD